Living the dream: Tania’s personal trainer success story

Tania Weil has finished her Personal Trainer diploma, after completing her Exercise to Music training with us before that – and she’s loved her experience with Lifetime.

1. When did you first know you wanted to become a personal trainer?

I’ve always been fascinated by the body and how it functions. This led me to pursue my bachelor’s degree in biochemistry, which allowed me to gain an in-depth understanding of the biological processes that occur in our body on a molecular and cellular level.

To cope with the workload and stress while I was studying for my BA, I discovered the gym, group exercise classes and boxing. I soon fell in love with one class in particular: Body Combat. It’s an empowering cardio workout inspired by a number of mixed martial arts, including: karate, boxing, T’ai Chi, Muay Thai and Tae Kwon Do.

After participating in group classes for over eight years, I decided I wanted to take my passion for fitness one step further. I set myself a goal: to instruct, motivate and spread the word, so many more people could discover the benefits of working out. I also decided to learn to teach Body Combat, and came up with my own new boxing programme called Box and Burn, which will be appearing in gyms from September.

And I didn’t stop there: I wanted to make a bigger difference to my clients’ lives, by delivering tailored workouts specific to every individual’s goals and needs. With this in mind, the obvious next step was to become a personal trainer. So now, alongside group classes, I work as a PT, training clients in their homes, at nearby parks or wherever suits them!

2. How do you balance working, studying and doing coursework?

I balanced everything by following a strict programme for completing my coursework: I studied for an hour every weekday morning, and for three hours every Saturday.

3. What’s your favourite thing about doing the course with Lifetime?

I love my amazing, inspiring, knowledgeable instructors (shout out to Jenny, Dave and Dan!), who guided me through Exercise to Music training. I had so much support from my tutor Laura, too. I loved the online learning material; the depth of knowledge and the way it was structured was really impressive. I just wish the course could have been even longer…

4. Who or what is your inspiration?

My tutors at Lifetime – Dave and Dan – my students and my clients are my biggest inspiration. It’s amazing to see how far they have come and how much their lives have changed; not just in terms of fitness and body shape but also their health, happiness and wellbeing. Helping them make these impressive changes is what drives me to be the best PT and instructor I can be for them. I hope to touch as many lives as possible.

5. What are your goals for the future?

I’ve got it all mapped out...

A) Make my brand known, nationwide.

B) Get Box and Burn into more gyms.

C) Continue to work as a personal trainer.

D) Open my own studio with a fun, community vibe, where I can run PT sessions and group classes.

E) Continue to study other forms of training. I have recently grown to love yoga as well as strength and conditioning, and want to take these further once I have practiced for a while.

If you're interested in becoming a personal trainer, head to our website to find the right fitness training course for you!